The inaugural Korean GP will be a very special one for Faster Than Speed, as the team will reach an impressive milestone: it will become the first FSR team to contest its 200th World Championship GP!
To celebrate this once-in-twelve-years occasion, the FTS-P12's raced by Giuseppe Marconi and John-Eric Saxen this Sunday will feature a very special livery.
On March 4th, 2001, Faster Than Speed made its debut on the inaugural FSR (called GP3GL back then) World Championship race. Almost twelve years later, in FSR WC's event number 202 (FTS missed two GPs in 2005), Faster Than Speed, the only team that took part in the 12 FSR WC seasons to date, will contest its 200th WC race.
In 199 World Championship GPs, FTS has achieved the following:
GP Entries (team): 199
GP Starts (car): 399
Race wins: 1 (Turkey 2007)
Podiums: 11 (France 2001, Germany 2003, Monaco 2007, Great Britain 2007, Turkey 2007, Belgium 2007, Brazil 2007, Australia 2008, Australia 2009, Great Britain 2009, Monaco 2011)
Pole Positions: 3 (Canada 2007, Monaco 2011, Hungary 2011)
Points scored: 462
Best season: 4th (2007)
Throughout the 199 races, 44 different drivers sat in the amazing-looking panther cars. We are immensely thankful and proud about every single one of them. From Gjermund Higraff and Alan Bryson, the ones who started the journey on that distant March 2001 to Giuseppe Marconi and John-Eric Saxen, our current lineup. From Patrick De Wit, who wrote one of the most important pages in the team's history by taking our maiden WC victory, to Ernesto De Angelis, the World Champion who sat in an FTS cockpit. From those like Giuseppe Marconi, who took part in 76 WC races onboard an FTS car, to those drivers who just had a single chance as a reserve driver, but still gave their all to try to leave their mark on the team's history.
To all of them, a big thank you! As our tribute, the name of each of our 44 WC drivers will be displayed inside our iconic panther. With the number of WC races they competed in onboard an FTS car next to their names and ordered by date of their FTS WC debut, these are the 44 heroes:
Alan Bryson (19)
Gjermund Higraff (20)
Dante Rodriguez (1)
Ceres Miranda (1)
Emanuele Conti (1)
Petri Eklund (5)
Ant Carlos (12)
Gabriel Garivaldis (59)
Peter Koukouletas (1)
Ireneusz Ciaglo (1)
Marc Van Huffelen (1)
Glyn Cooper (6)
Dennis Johansen (10)
Matteo Gasperini (4)
Christian Smirnoff (7)
Erick McNerney (4)
Allan Jensen (16)
Andrey Lovchy (2)
Ferry Koek (4)
Steve Kasimatis (1)
Theo Gort (2)
Joakim Bengtsson (3)
Giuseppe Marconi (76)
Fabrizio Pescali (1)
Deniz Acarlar (1)
Patrick De Wit (63)
Sergio Casalins (22)
Mauricio Gomez (4)
Florian Pechon (7)
Gabriel Montañes (1)
Ernesto De Angelis (6)
Tom Eley (1)
Ben Philips (1)
Agustin Canapino (14)
Robert Fakes (1)
Sven Hesse (1)
Mikko Puumalainen (1)
Roy Wachtmeester (1)
Santiago Niza (2)
Dian Kostadinov (1)
Karim Wezenberg (1)
Jaakko Mikkonen (1)
John-Eric Saxen (12)
Mark Aalberts (1)
Special thanks to Ernesto De Angelis for the fantastic job he made with the FTS-P12's special livery that the team will use this weekend! We would also like to thank our friends at NetRex Grand Prix, with whom we partnered in 2009 and who allowed us to take a few shots of the special livery in their museum, specially decorated for the occasion as a gift!
Take a look at the exclusive shots of the FTS-P12's 200th World Championship GP Special Livery by Ernesto De Angelis at our Car page!
Thanks to all our supporters, current and former team members, current and former FSR administrators and our fellow teams, without whom this dream would have been impossible. Let's go for another 200! Follow us on Facebook, Twitter (@FTS_Racing) and Google+ and leave us your #FTS200 messages!
Faster Than Speed
Press Release
http://www.fts-racing.net
